Advent: 21 December 2022
Good morning…
…on this, the shortest day of the year – in the northern hemisphere. Our honorary Pagan Chaplain has organised for the third year a candlelit labyrinth which all are invited to walk this evening, on the longest night of the year. It is in the Spanish Gardens, accessed from the School of Economics car park on the Scores, and is open from 4.30 – 8 pm. If the wind is too strong for candles, there are strings of other lights to guide our way. Here is an image I took at last year’s midwinter event.
Behind today’s window is the letter V. V is for… Virgin. The virgin birth has been at the heart of the nativity story for centuries though biblical scholars among others have cast doubt on it. The Hebrew word in Isaiah which Matthew and Luke see fulfilled in Mary may be better translated “young woman.” And the New Testament books by Mark, John and Paul make no reference to the virgin birth. Yet theology has seen significance in it. Robert Runcie, who was Archbishop of Canterbury in the 1980s, wrote in One Light for One World:
The early Christian community knew from its own experience that life had come from the empty tomb. One of the ways in which this experience was expressed is in Jesus’s birth from the empty womb.
But it is clearly an area of belief where Christians ask serious questions. Here is Paul Bull in a mid-20th Century book for children called Asking Them Questions:
There is nothing wrong in the question: “How can this be?” In fact that was the very question the Virgin Mary asked when the Angel told her that she should be the mother of the Son of God.
Mary’s virginity can also be a slightly awkward moment in children’s nativity plays – how much to explain? And so I like this account:
At a nativity play, all was going well until the angel appeared and told the little girl playing Mary that she was going to have a baby.
“But how can this be?” said Mary, “since I am a Viking?”
Finally, the University has released a Christmas message from me on video, which highlights this evening’s Candlelit Labyrinth, and services of Carols by Candlelight under the theme of being together this Christmas. You can find it on the Chaplaincy’s facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/UStA.Chaplaincy
With all good wishes for the shortest day and longest night.
Yours,
Donald.